I don’t know the details here, but generally I’d be envious of anyone receiving medical care in a private hospital in Thailand or Singapore compared to the UK or Canada and that’s from personal as well as others’ anecdotal experience.

There’s nothing new about Europeans govt’s sending patients to SE Asia. It must be 10 years since the Dutch sent a group of 100 or so patients to Thailand for heart surgery.

Coming to a country near you. HusseinCare will transport you to sunny Mexico to enjoy your last days in a lower cost environment that will save you and the taxpayers money. No need to make up your mind - we’ll do that for you.

"Instead we staff our nursing homes with third world immigrants with poor training and bad attitudes"

...and you reward them with miniscule health benefits, if any, no pension, no every federal holiday off, little vacation and slighly more than minimum wage to clean butts, take care of wounds, feed people, and lift and position them constantly.....

its amazing what people will pay for their dog pedicures and yet don't want to pay for care of their elderly....

When my dear 92-year-old father was on a home hospice program in my home for the last 2 1/2 years of his life, the program (funded by Medicare) sent in CNA's who were kind, dedicated, competent, and doing physically demanding, essential services for my very debilitated father. I was dismayed to find out they themselves were getting almost no benefits, and really low wages.

I was very grateful to them but it was an eye-opener for sure.

11
posted on 12/27/2012 6:24:39 PM PST
by Mrs. Don-o
(May the Lord bless you, May the Lord keep you, May He turn to you His countenance and give you peace)

Living in a nursing home on medicaid in the USA is a living hell. There are way too few staff for those who cannot get out of bed or a wheelchair by themselves. They are pretty much left to die in misery or infections, while being given drugs that keep them alive.
This is not necessarily anyone’s fault, its a demographic problem and a side effect of drug breakthroughs that keep older people alive without keeping them from getting strokes.

I am reminded of the 1990s on This Week Sam Donaldson was preaching how cigarettes should be outlawed to save lives.

George Will asks him “And where will the money come from to take care of them?”

My friend, from what I see those on medicare are getting better treatment than those who are paying. They don’t even have to fill out paper work. Same care, no worries about economizing. This is from what I observe at Mom’s nursing home.

16
posted on 12/27/2012 7:08:43 PM PST
by The_Media_never_lie
(Actually, they lie when it suits them! The crooked MS media must be defeated any way it can be done!)

RE :”My friend, from what I see those on medicare are getting better treatment than those who are paying. They dont even have to fill out paper work. Same care, no worries about economizing. This is from what I observe at Moms nursing home”

Like I said, a nursing home here costs ~ $6K per month =$72K per year, and you know how much mosr people save for retirement. And from what I have seen the treatment is pretty bad for someone immobile unless someone is there complaining/threatening all the time. They will leave them dirty and left hours in their own waste until their sores require emergency care.

I have/had a couple relatives who were lucky to have someone who could give them better care at home much cheaper. But that is a big job, and a very dirty one.

Thank God that neither Osama Obama nor his wide bodied bride will ever be shipped to a nursing home in Eastern Europe under OsamaObamaCare.I'm far less confident about *my* fate and the fate of *my* loved ones.

You know what we do? We import black immigrants to work those dirty depressing nursing aid jobs (costing the national debt $72K per year per person) that Americans won’t do. And guess who 99.99 % of them vote for?

That is true. But many nursing home operators are part of the problem, they hire the cheapest help but then scam extra money from Medicare and insurance plans. Some nursing home “doctors” send their bills directly to collection agencies instead of the patient.

Don’t underestimate Mexico. There are already substantial US retirement communities down there with long waiting lists.

They also have many things that in the US are ridiculously expensive and still hard to get. For example, they have a much better caregiver to patient ratio, and these are educated, English-speaking caregivers, btw.

They also have much more respect for the elderly. In Mexico, families care for their own elderly. They are also very Catholic and into “natural death”, which does not include euthanasia, which is creeping into parts of the US.

And believe me, even going to a top rated nursing home in the US can be pretty grotesque. I’ve seen corridors full of wheelchair women, who spend their time either drugged and in bed, or sitting and staring at painted bricks. If they aren’t senile when they get there, they will start to become senile in a week or two.

And it is expensive as hell.

22
posted on 12/27/2012 8:40:56 PM PST
by yefragetuwrabrumuy
(Pennies and Nickels will NO LONGER be Minted as of 1/1/13 - Tim Geithner, US Treasury Sect)

That would never happen here. Instead we staff our nursing homes with third world immigrants with poor training and bad attitudes.

You are 100% correct. Most LPN's where a family member of mine is can't even speak English. They dispense the wrong medication to patients and become defensive and even arrogant when they are confronted with these mistakes. Where I live they are members of the SEIU. Their union rep is always available at the home wearing his Muslim attire.

If you want to find the root of almost any problem, you have to look at government. Government interference in health care, insurance, and care for the elderly has produced the same sorry results that all government programs produce. We have declining quality, less access, and increasing costs. If the free market had been allowed to work (and if Social Security and Medicare had not convinced people that they need not plan for themselves, because Uncle Sam would take care of them), then the situation would be much different than it is now. There will always be problems, but government always makes problems worse.

24
posted on 12/27/2012 10:24:56 PM PST
by Pining_4_TX
(All those who were appointed to eternal life believed. Acts 13:48)

RE :”When my dear 92-year-old father was on a home hospice program in my home for the last 2 1/2 years of his life, the program (funded by Medicare) sent in CNA’s who were kind, dedicated, competent, and doing physically demanding, essential services for my very debilitated father. I was dismayed to find out they themselves were getting almost no benefits, and really low wages”

Medicare or medicaid? Once again I don’t think medicare pays for long term nursing care, that is medicaid when all the patient’s and his/her spouses assets are gone.

Here in Maryland a nursing home charges $6K a month or $72K per year to medicaid. But of course the state government drives up the cost of labor without getting better service. Better to get a private contractor who wants to work off the books.

My mother is 95 now, still drives, but it is time to update the durable powers of attorney (financial and health) and think seriously about care decisions that can’t be far into the future. I just noticed today that she already has a Catholic Advance Directive completed (who knows whether the hospital will honor this).

I really need to find out about home care options such as the home hospice program (for later). She is fortunate to have state employee’s medical insurance as well as my late father’s policy still as a secondary (going to look into that tomorrow). And Medicare, I guess?

She is close to the point where I will have to start at least overseeing things like rent payments and insurance coordination, although she’s done quite well on her own so far. But short term memory lapses are becoming apparent (e.g. she decorated her house nicely for Christmas but went out to dinner by herself Christmas after church, forgetting she was going to get together with us (we had discussed the plans fully on Christmas Eve)).

We always have to give thanks for every single day our parents remain with us, even on the more difficult days.

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